. >>> remembering nelson mandela. this morning the world remembering that man, mourning the loss of a legend. south africa's former president hailed for his courage and decency and message of equality. welcome to "early start." i'm john berman. >> i'm michaela pereira. it is 5:00 in the east. >>> nelson mandela whose unbreakable will and unsurpassed courage brought an end to an era of white domination in south africa. he is dead this morning at the age of 95. mandela was such a global icon with larger than life legend who went from a prison cell to the presidency and he did it with such unmashed grace. i want to bring in robin curnow live from johannesburg. set the scene for us today, robin. >> the announcement was made just before midnight on thursday. so many south africans didn't really know that their icon had passed on. it was only when they woke up this morning that they perhaps looked at the newspapers or heard on the radio. much of this country is quite rule countryside and they would have seen headlines like